Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout became the 11th player in baseball history to win at least three MVP awards, topping Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman in results announced Thursday.
In voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Trout received 17 first-place votes and 355 voting points. Bregman was the runner-up with 13 first-place votes and 335 points, and Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien was a distant third with 228 points.
Trout joins a list of players with three-plus MVPs that is headed by Barry Bonds, a seven-time winner. No one else has won more than the three won by Trout, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio and Jimmie Foxx.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Trout said on MLB Network. “My career so far has gone by so fast, and it’s been unbelievable.
Trout, 28, also won the award in 2014 and 2016. His latest victory came despite the fact that he missed the last three weeks of the season due to a lingering foot injury.
Asked if he thought the early end to his year might cost him the MVP award, Trout said, “It definitely did. I was playing probably a month with (the injury), and it was to the point where I couldn’t play anymore. And obviously Bregman, we play against him all the time, and Semien, just an unbelievable season they had. I was definitely following all of them. Every time we face Oakland or the Astros, they were doing something special.”
Trout finished in the top two in AL MVP voting for the seventh time in eight full major league seasons. This year, he led the majors with a .438 on-base percentage and the AL with a .645 slugging percentage while batting .291 with 45 homers (second in the AL) and 104 RBIs.
Bregman, 25, tied for third in the AL with 41 homers and came in fifth in the league with 112 RBIs. He batted .296 with a .423 on-base percentage (second) and a .592 slugging percentage (third).
